Thursday, April 17, 2008

George & Lito's

Sick of getting a plastic-chair-induced butt-cramp whilst waiting for your underwear to dry? Salutations, fellow laundromat-goer! Happily, new diner George & Lito's (2196 Windsor, in the former Pyramid Cafe space) is ready to help frequenters of its next-door neighbour, the Bluenose Laundromat, make butt-cramps a thing of the past. The restaurant's upstairs is set up with a couch, a TV and a laundry-board that's connected to the laundromat---meaning that customers can pop their laundry in, and then nip over to the diner to relax with a coffee until their machine's indicator light goes off on the board. (Chair and couch delivery for the restaurant's upper level is pending.) "It was a feature that was there for years that wasn't used, which is a shame," says George & Lito's owner, Stamos Sotiropoulos, about the board. There's also more to Sotiropoulos's restaurant than lattes and laundry-boards. Described on its menu as "your neighbourhood diner," the joint doesn't specialize in any one kind of food---Greek dishes like moussaka share menu space with Italian fare (spaghetti with homemade sauce, lasagna), seafood and traditional diner eats like potato skins and nachos. "The only thing we're specializing in is good food," says Sotiropoulos, who runs the restaurant's kitchen and also owns the Lunchbox Deli in Park Victoria. Some sad news for Pyramid fans: the new space bears little resemblance to their beloved cafe of yore. But the George & Lito's decor is admittedly pretty cool---the entire restaurant has been repainted in striking "hunter red" and trimmed with black, and the ceiling's black now, too. And while diners hankering for the Pyramid Cafe's vegan fare might have a semi-difficult time navigating the new menu, there's lots of hummus and vegetarian eats available, including black-bean quesadillas. The diner's named after Sotiropoulos' father George, and his wife's father, Lito, both veterans of the restaurant biz. If my boyfriend and I named a restaurant after our dads, it would be called Corneilius and Jack's. Somehow, that's not as catchy. Call G & L's at 405-3542.

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